The entire disclosures of Japanese Patent Application No. 2008-034815, filed Feb. 15, 2008 is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus including nozzles which ejects a liquid onto a medium and a rotational drum which has a circumferential surface having a holding area for holding the medium and a non-holding area, wherein the rotational drum rotates so that the circumferential surface faces the nozzles.
2. Related Art
One example of a liquid ejecting apparatus known in the art includes nozzles which eject a liquid onto a medium, where the apparatus includes a rotational drum which has a circumferential surface having a holding area for holding the medium and a non-holding area. The rotational drum rotates while the circumferential surface faces the nozzles. An opening is formed in the non-holding area of the circumferential surface of the rotational drum. In this liquid ejecting apparatus, a liquid is ejected toward the opening from the nozzles to perform a flushing operation. In addition, an absorptive member capable of absorbing the liquid ejected toward the opening from the nozzles during the flushing operation is provided in the rotational drum. One example of such an apparatus is described in Japanese Patent Pub. No. JP-2006-239871.
One problem with this configuration, however, is that when the absorptive member absorbs the liquid ejected toward the opening from the nozzles during a flushing operation, the absorptive member may affect the rotation of the rotational drum. For example, when the absorptive member is provided in the rotational drum, the liquid is absorbed in only one area, causing a weight imbalance in the rotational drum, which may cause problems with the rotation of the rotational drum.